Monday, March 05, 2012

I'm very excited to share this project - my first "completed" room in this house. :) And I did the whole thing for under $100. (I'm not just impatient - I'm cheap too.)

The powder room was the first room in the house that I tackled as far as painting goes. It was painted the same beige as the rest of the house - a perfectly nice color but not something I loved in that room. It had a wallpaper border around the middle of the wall, a black/creme travel-theme border peeling off in several places.

So here's the before - pretty blah...

You can see that there was a towel bar above the toilet for some reason. That's about 6 feet away from the sink, so it wasn't the best place to hang a towel. Not sure what the thought was there originally. Plus, the handicap-access bar. I'm sure it had its place but it wasn't something we wanted to keep around. The tile is lovely - the light fixture, sink, and mirror were just fine with me - and the woodwork was in great shape. So the only major work needed was painting.

So, here's the big reveal...

I love how it turned out! This bathroom makeover was super cheap too. Here's how it breaks down:

The paint is a warm purple-brown. So pretty. It's actually much warmer than it shows here. I got it in the oops paint section at Home Depot for $7/gallon. Crazy price.

The big framed Monet print was a freebie from my dear friend Suzanne who inherited it from the previous owners of her house when they moved in (thank you Suzanne!). I bought the frame at a garage sale for $5. I then cleaned it up, painted it black, and rubbed it with bronze metallic paint before sealing with matte varnish.

The metal scrollwork piece is from Hobby Lobby. I bought it for $12 one week when all metal was 1/2 off. The fleur-de-lis towel holder was only $4 during the same sale. (Love those Hobby Lobby sales.) The little 3-drawer chest and shelf/basket are from Hobby Lobby too. We picked them up when Hobby Lobby had a home decor clearance last summer for $15 and $8 each.

The 2 candle sconces were a garage sale find. They were $1 each. Originally, they were black wrought-iron. I spray-painted them in oil-rubbed bronze. The magazine basket was another garage sale find for $3. I spray-painted that too.

The switch-plate cover and outlet cover were $1 each and were originally black. I spray-painted them with oil-rubbed bronze for some shine. I had looked at getting new metal ones instead but I can't believe how much they were. This was a much cheaper option and they look great. I kind of wonder how it would have looked if I had just painted the original covers with the oil-rubbed bronze paint instead. I'll have to try that in another room.

The toilet paper holder and the floor vent were the originals that were there. They were in bad shape to begin with. The toilet paper holder was chrome-ish - it was actually plastic but super chipped and ugly. And the floor vent was brown metal with crazy rust spots. I looked at getting new ones in the same bronze finish but they were too pricey for me (I'm so cheap!). So, again, I spray-painted them in oil-rubbed bronze. (Love that paint, can you tell?) A little spray-paint and they are beautiful again. I can't believe how great they turned out.

I did splurge a bit on the soap dispenser - I think it's the only thing I bought new for full price. :) It's from Target and was $12. Oh - and the hand towels. Again, from Target at full price for $8 each.

The rest of the accessories came from my stash of home decor stuff I had on hand and a few more garage sales. The tissue holder and the waste basket too - although both were originally brown. Of course, I spray-painted those too.

So that's a grand total of $98, if I add in the cost of 2 cans of spray-paint. That's a pretty good bargain for a room makeover. It's nothing fancy, but it makes me super happy.

The one thing I might still do is to replace the existing faucet with a matching (you guessed it) bronze faucet. But it's not something we're planning to do right now.